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27-letter words containing a, e, r, o, n, u

  • go/come/be under the hammer — If you say that something goes, comes, or is under the hammer, you mean that it is going to be sold at an auction.
  • hand-held personal computer — palmtop
  • haul someone over the coals — to reprimand someone
  • high performance serial bus — (hardware, standard)   (Or "IEEE 1394") A 1995 Macintosh/IBM PC serial bus interface standard offering isochronous real-time data transfer. 1394 can transfer data between a computer and its peripherals at 100, 200, or 400 Mbps, with a planed increase to 2 Gbps. Cable length is limited to 4.5 m but up to 16 cables can be daisy-chained yielding a total length of 72 m. It can daisy-chain together up to 63 peripherals in a tree-like structure (as opposed to SCSI's linear structure). It allows peer-to-peer communication, e.g. between a scanner and a printer, without using system memory or the CPU. It is designed to support plug-and-play and hot swapping. Its six-wire cable is not only more convenient than SCSI cables but can supply up to 60 watts of power, allowing low-consumption devices to operate without a separate power cord. Some expensive camcorders included this bus from 1995. It is expected to be used to carry SCSI, with possible application to home automation using repeaters. See also Universal Serial Bus, FC-AL.
  • hue, saturation, brightness — (graphics)   (HSB) A colour model that describes colours in terms of hue, saturation, and brightness. In the tables below, a hue is a "pure" colour, i.e. one with no black or white in it. A shade is a "dark" colour, i.e. one produced by mixing a hue with black. A tint is a "light" colour, i.e. one produced by mixing a hue with white. A tone is a colour produced by mixing a hue with a shade of grey. Colour type S L Black Any 0% White Any 100% Grey 0% 1-99% Hue 100% 50% Shade 100% 1-49% Tint 100% 51-99% Tone 1-99% 1-99% Quattro Pro, CorelDraw, and PhotoShop use a variant (Quattro Pro calls the third parameter "brightness") in which a brightness of 100% can produce white, a pure hue, or anything in between, depending on the saturation. Colour type S B Black Any 0% White 0% 100% Grey 0% 1-99% Hue 100% 100% Shade 100% 1-99% Tint 1-99% 100% Tone 1-99% 1-99% [Same as HSV?]
  • in (or over) the long haul — over a long period of time
  • income protection insurance — Income protection insurance is a type of health insurance that compensates someone for part of the income that they lose because of illness or injury that prevents them from working.
  • indefinite relative pronoun — a relative pronoun without an antecedent, as whoever in They gave tickets to whoever wanted them.
  • insulin resistance syndrome — Pathology. a group of medical conditions present simultaneously in a patient, as high blood pressure, low HDL cholesterol levels, and an excess of abdominal fat, that increases a person's risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Also called insulin resistance syndrome.
  • inter-process communication — (programming, operating system)   (IPC) Exchange of data between one process and another, either within the same computer or over a network. It implies a protocol that guarantees a response to a request. Examples are Unix sockets, RISC OS's messages, OS/2's Named Pipes, Microsoft Windows' DDE, Novell's SPX and Macintosh's IAC. Although IPC is performed automatically by programs, an analogous function can be performed interactively when users cut and paste data from one process to another using a clipboard.
  • internal-combustion engines — an engine of one or more working cylinders in which the process of combustion takes place within the cylinders.
  • international monetary fund — an international organization that promotes the stabilization of the world's currencies and maintains a monetary pool from which member nations can draw in order to correct a deficit in their balance of payments: a specialized agency of the United Nations. Abbreviation: IMF, I.M.F.
  • internet architecture board — (IAB) The technical body that oversees the development of the Internet suite of protocols. It has two task forces: the Internet Engineering Task Force and the Internet Research Task Force. "IAB" previously stood for Internet Activities Board.
  • internet foundation classes — (language, library, programming, standard)   (IFC) A library of classes used in the creation of Java applets with GUIs. Created by Netscape, the Internet Foundation Classes provide GUI elements, as well as classes for Applications Services, Security, Messaging, and Distributed Objects. The IFC code, which is exclusively Java, is layered on top of the Java Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT), thus preserving platform independence. The AWT and IFC collectively form the Java Foundation Classes, which provide a standardised framework for developing powerful Java applications.
  • it never rains but it pours — You can use the expression it never rains but it pours to mean that several unfortunate events often happen at the same time.
  • joint and several guarantee — a legal guarantee undertaken by multiple people in which any one guarantor can be held fully responsible for repaying the whole of the debt despite each guarantor only being partially responsible for that debt
  • keep body and soul together — the physical structure and material substance of an animal or plant, living or dead.
  • link state routing protocol — (networking, communications)   A routing protocol such as OSPF which permits routers to exchange information with one another about the reachability of other networks and the cost or metric to reach the other networks. The cost/metric is based on number of hops, link speeds, traffic congestion, and other factors as determined by the network designer. Link state routers use Dijkstra's algorithm to calculate shortest (lowest cost) paths, and normally update other routers with whom they are connected only when their own routing tables change. Link state routing is an improvement over distance-vector routing protocols such as RIP which normally use only a single metric (such as hop count) and which exchange all of their table information with all other routers on a regular schedule. Link state routing normally requires more processing but less transmission overhead.
  • linux documentation project — (project)   (LDP) A team of volunteers developing documentation for the Linux operating system. The LDP aims to handle all of the issues of Linux documentation, ranging from on-line documentation to printed manuals, covering topics such as installing, using, and running Linux. The LDP has no central organisation; anyone can join in.
  • little-lord-fauntleroy-suit — (italics) a children's novel (1886) by Frances H. Burnett.
  • master of the queen's music — (in Britain when the sovereign is female) a court post dating from the reign of Charles I. It is an honorary title and normally held by an established English composer
  • maximum-minimum thermometer — a thermometer that records the highest and lowest temperatures since it was last set
  • measure of central tendency — a statistic that in some way specifies the central tendency of a sample of measurements, as the mean, median, or mode.
  • memorandum of understanding — a document that describes the general principles of an agreement between parties, but does not amount to a substantive contract
  • military-industrial complex — a network of a nation's military force together with all of the industries that support it.
  • mongolian people's republic — a republic in E central Asia, in N Mongolia. About 600,000 sq. mi. (1,500,000 sq. km). Capital: Ulan Bator.
  • mount rainier national park — a national park in W Washington, including Mount Rainier. 378 sq. mi. (980 sq. km).
  • multiple document interface — (programming)   (MDI) The ability of an application program to show windows giving views of more than one document at a time. The opposite is Single Document Interface (SDI).
  • national insurance benefits — benefits provided as a result of payments to national insurance, such a state pension, sick pay, etc
  • natural language processing — (artificial intelligence)   (NLP) Computer understanding, analysis, manipulation, and/or generation of natural language. This can refer to anything from fairly simple string-manipulation tasks like stemming, or building concordances of natural language texts, to higher-level AI-like tasks like processing user queries in natural language.
  • network application support — (networking)   (NAS) DEC's approach to applications integration across a distributed multivendor environment.
  • network definition language — (NDL) The language used to program the DCP (Data Communications Processor) on Burroughs Large System. Version: NDL II.
  • neurolinguistic programming — a therapy designed to alter behaviour by reprogramming unconscious patterns of thought
  • nothing to write home about — If you say that something is nothing to write home about, you mean that it is not very interesting or exciting.
  • old chestnut/hoary chestnut — If you refer to a statement, a story, or a joke as an old chestnut or a hoary chestnut, you mean that it has been repeated so often that it is no longer interesting.
  • on the understanding (that) — If you agree to do something on the understanding that something else will be done, you do it because you have been told that the other thing will definitely be done.
  • open scripting architecture — (OSA) A CIL approach to the coexistence of multiple scripting systems.
  • oscillating universe theory — the theory that the universe is oscillating between periods of expansion and collapse
  • outline planning permission — a permission for building on land which sets out general but not yet detailed guidelines
  • peripheral technology group — (company)   A national and international distributor of IBM PC-to-Unix and Internet connectivity products. They cater for resellers, dealers and VARs and are one of the top Seagate and Micropolis distributors in the US. Address: Eden Prairie, MN, USA (a suburb of Minneapolis). Eden Prairie ("Silicon Prairie") is the home of Digi International, Ontrack, Open Systems, LaserMaster, Best Buy, and others.
  • personal accident insurance — accident which covers personal accidents
  • post-viral fatigue syndrome — Post-viral fatigue syndrome is a long-lasting illness that is thought to be caused by a virus. Its symptoms include feeling tired all the time and muscle pain.
  • potassium hydrogen tartrate — a colourless or white soluble crystalline salt used in baking powders, soldering fluxes, and laxatives. Formula: KHC4H4O6
  • pour oil on troubled waters — any of a large class of substances typically unctuous, viscous, combustible, liquid at ordinary temperatures, and soluble in ether or alcohol but not in water: used for anointing, perfuming, lubricating, illuminating, heating, etc.
  • product liability insurance — Product liability insurance is insurance for a producer or supplier of goods against injury to third parties or loss of or damage to their property that is caused by a fault in the goods.
  • protestant episcopal church — Episcopal Church in America.
  • public broadcasting service — a network of independent, noncommercial television stations that operate with public and government funding instead of with revenues from advertising. Abbreviation: PBS.
  • public service broadcasting — publicly-funded broadcasting
  • put one's best foot forward — (in vertebrates) the terminal part of the leg, below the ankle joint, on which the body stands and moves.
  • respiratory syncytial virus — a myxovirus causing infections of the nose and throat, esp in young children. It is thought to be involved in some cot deaths
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